Tools
A psychonaut brings only their vajra and their residual self image (to steal a term from the Matrix) into the Shadowlands during an incursion. But a psychonaut can leave things in the Shadowlands to collect and use on their next incursion. These are the tools of their avatar, psychic enhancements from the Shadowlands, grafted onto a psychonaut's avatar to serve their will. Tool Types * Magick * Artifacts The Mystic Tools available to Psychonauts break down into two branches: the Artifacts and the High Magick. High Magick is powerful and easily overwhelms opposition, but High Magick has a heavily maintenance cost. Artifacts are nowhere near as powerful, although still powerful. Artifacts are much easier to activate and maintain. A psychonaut can have up to three artifacts equipped and three spells equipped on any given incursion. However in order to equip each artifact and each spell, the psychonaut must learn a series of Shadowlands skills that are necessary to learn and use the artifacts and spells. The Ring Psychonauts begin their first incursion in the Ring. During their first Incursion, psychonauts will not have access to their Vajra. Vajra is unlocked as part of the process of opening the Inner Eye. Since this is a major first step for the psychonauts, they will seek to open their Inner Eye. In order to do this, they must get to the Realm where a psychonaut is capable to open their Inner Eye. This Realm is the Foglands. The Foglands are the lands of ignorance and confusion, and so it here that the psychonaut must open their Inner Eye. The Inner Eye The Inner Eye is how one views the Shadowlands. Once the Inner Eye is opened, the psychonaut may attune their eye through actions to one of three states. The default state is the Eye of Dusk. The other two states of the Inner Eye are the Enlightened Eye and the Darkened Eye. The darkened eye is attuned to the story and the shadowlands. An enlightened eye is attuned to the bonelands and to science. A darkened eye will also strengthen ability in the high magick. But the darkened eye opens one up to story and one with a darkened eye is more vulnerable to the attacks of abominations and denizens of the shadowlands and also more susceptible to high magick used by others. An enlightened eye will see through the former things take in the shadowlands to metaphor they represent, granting them resistance to attacks and high magick. But an enlightened eye sees fewer details of the shadowlands and has difficulty invoking the high magick. The Eye of Dusk offers none of those benefits. But it also offers none of the attached disadvantages. A psychonaut may atune their Inner Eye as they wish, but cannot spend vajra until the Inner Eye is opened and may not use artifacts or spell until the Inner Eye is open. Flair and Style Flair and Style are first twitches of High Magick and Artifact use. Both Flair and Style generate a passive each that useful on its own, but which has the primary purpose of shaping artifact and high magick use. The Spark A spark of genius or madness is necessary to work with artifacts and the artificer's craft. The Spark is the necessary ingredient to activate any artifact, and can only be gained from the Demon Courts of the Hidden Wood. There are twelve different sparks, each which provide a unique effect to all artifacts used by the psychonaut in question. An artificer's spark affect their capabilities as much as the three artifacts which they have equipped. The Daemon A minor demon of the Fair Folk Courts, the daemons are apprentices to the great Demons of the Courts. There are only four classes of daemons, one for each Court of the Solar Year, compared to the twelve types of Spark. The powers provided by each daemon still retains a substantial effect upon the Sorcerer's abilities. Artifacts and Spell Slots Unlocking the spark and daemon allows the psychonaut to access the sphere of high magick and the artificer's craft, but without artifact and spell slots they have nothing with which to work. A psychonaut may unlock up to three slots for both artifacts and spells. A psychonaut may learn any number of spells from the available options, but may equip no more than their current number of spell slots on any one incursion. And the same is true for the artifact slots. The psychonaut may have a library full of spells and workshop jammed with artifacts, but may only ever equip a maximum of three for each during a particular incursion. Unlocking The Capacity * Unlock the Gate to the Foglands ** Enter the Foglands * Open the Inner Eye The Artifier Branch * Style ** Activate Avatar's Style * Find a Spark ** Open First Artifact Slot *** Obtain Artifact ** Open Second Artifact Slot *** Obtain Artifact ** Open Third Artifact Slot *** Obtain Artifact The Sorcerer Branch * Flair ** Activate Avatar's Flair * Befriend and bond with a Demon ** Open First Spell Slot *** Obtain Spell ** Open Second Spell Slot *** Obtain Spell ** Open Third Spell Slot *** Obtain Spell Sources * Blood Red Dreaming Blog: Concerning Tools * Blood Red Dreaming Blog: The Mystic Tools Skill Tree